This next title in Osprey's New Vanguard series covers midget submarines and specifically those built and operated by Axis nations during WWII. Though there were many Axis countries, only Italy, Germany and Japan built these boats. Initially, many of these boats were designed for coastal defense, but their use was quite different.

The book gives a small introduction to the subject and immediately goes into those boats used by Italy. It was the Italians who had the greatest success with these vessels. Most of their midget submarines were ridden by two man crews. These are the ones which had the greatest success, sinking or damaging ships at anchor both in Alexandria and Gibraltar. These crews basically got off the vessels and attached explosive charges to the underside of the ships at anchor. Of course, they had to get through various anti-submarine obstacles, and getting away was important as well, but generally, these worked. Like many other midgets, these were designed to be carried close to the target, either on fast boats or submarines. As you might expect, losses were high, but many of the crew managed to survive.

In Germany, little thought was given to the subject and when it was decided these might be a good idea, what was developed was not all that good. Most were little more than manned torpedoes, carrying another torpedo. Initial midgets were not even able to dive, making their success even more tenuous. German designers went through a considerable number of different boats, all torpedo carrying, all equally unsuccessful. It was only at the very end of the war that a really good midget submarine was developed and while it worked quite well, it was a typical too little, too late.

Finally, we get to the Japanese. These are probably the most well known boats due to their use on the Pearl Harbor attack. Like the boats of other nations, these were relatively unsuccessful, though there were some ships damaged or sunk during the early days of the war, including the attack on the HMS Ramillies in the harbor of Diego Suarez on Madagascar that put the ship out of the war for over a year.

Though considerable time and expense was spent on these craft, the results did not justify the time or the expense. Better to have used the mother submarines on real missions rather than haul around the midgets (larger subs were the main transport of these vessels due to the distances needed to travel). Many missions turned into suicide ventures with the crews being lost along with the craft.

Yet they did play their part in the war and their story needed to be told. In this book the authors have done a superb job of covering the development and deployment of all the various types of Axis midget submarine (and there ware more than you'd think). The book has a lot of superb period photos of these craft and this is additionally enhanced by some excellent art work. One thing I think could be improved upon is that I found quite a few of the photos to be rather dark. You would think that with all the ability to enhance images, that these could have been lighter and easier to see details. Regardless, it is an excellent title and one that I'm sure you will find a fascinating read.

July 2014

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